


Sweet Like Apples

by ReduxCath



Category: Dragalia Lost (Video Game)
Genre: Apples, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Is it gay to bake apple pies? it just might be, M/M, No apple pies (yet), That moment when you support your bro to nurse your feelings for him, and then your bro loves you back, but nothing lewd (not in this fic), gets just slightly sexy at the end, slight slight slight references to drug use (back when Ranzal was a free-spirited young lad)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:27:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22723909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReduxCath/pseuds/ReduxCath
Summary: This Valentines event is a hoot and a half. I read Ranzal and Luca's story first (like you do) and of course, this popped into my head. I stan Ranzal/Luca as friends, but ya gotta let me have some sweet gay shit with them too every once in a while.What if the guy you liked asked for your help looking for a gift for your King? And what if he liked you back?
Relationships: Luca/Ranzal (Dragalia Lost)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	Sweet Like Apples

“Maybe your information’s not the most reliable?”

The moment those words fly out of his lips, he wishes he could take them back.

Ranzal’s a tough cookie, and anyone who has ever known him for more than a hot minute can attest to that. He’s a mercenary, who willingly gave up the comforts of a lord’s life to live off the world like all the other common men and women, and who thrived despite everything that was thrown at him. He’s seen and done things that would make his father squirm—things that have made his father squirm, now that he’s on better terms with him and has been able to speak to him after all these years. Ranzal has taken the world by storm and the world has not been capable of breaking him, only weathering him like water weathers the rocks at a beach. And meeting Euden has given him a hope beyond hope, a dream beyond a dream, that maybe the world isn’t as immovable as it seems, and that happy endings can maybe be more than fairy tales.

Of course, fairy tale endings have high prices, even when your beloved King seems to work miracles wherever he walks.

There have been many who have died in this senseless conflict, all for the sake of a demon’s unknowable ambitions. His King has lost his family, fakes a smile every day so that he can continue to inspire others. But Ranzal is no fool, and he knows that however bright Euden looks on the outside, however bright he feels on the inside, it’s the result of hard work and a determination to never be swallowed by the darkness that lurks at his periphery. It is difficult being the sun of New Alberia.

All this is to say, Ranzal understands Luca very well.

Luca pushes, begs him to keep going. “I’m sure we haven’t looked everywhere, man. Come on, they _have_ to be somewhere.” He hurries along, his sword and bow at his back. Ranzal never took Luca for one to go on the warmaster path, but then again, he never saw that in himself. And just like Ranzal was able to have reconciliation with his father and become his King’s personal guard captain, Luca was inspired by his best friend to end the discrimination intertwined into the ways of life they are all subject to.

Ranzal follows, sighing, resolving to keep looking at these apples, even if he’s already sick of them.

As he walks, he remembers, because the red of the apples looks so much like the red of Laxi’s dress.

Masculaxi, rather.

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

_“What should I call you?” He asked the robot, on a night where the two of them were able to find themselves alone by some roll of the dice. Mascula, Laxi, Masculaxi—there’s a question he needed answered immediately, because Ranzal was a simple man, and all this talk of sharing hearts and the ethics of artificial intelligence went over his head, no matter how hard he tried to wrap his head around the finer points._

_“I am Laxi.” She said, looking at him with a frown._

“> _And I’m Mascula.” He said, smiling as he gazed out at the canyon’s depths, as though gauging the proper angles he could jump with and land, unscathed._

_“See, that’s the ticket.”_

_“ >It is. It must be difficult. It is for me, a little. Even though I love being so close to my sister like this. That’s what makes it better.” The fact that you are never alone. Ranzal saw something so human, so person-like in the way that the robot held his hands and looked down at them, like the way people held the rosaries of their family members_. _It made him forget that the being next to him had an entirely different constitution._

_For a moment, of course. But it felt different then. “I think, for convenience's sake, that Masculaxi can be an acceptable form of address. After all, we are together.”_

_“But you’re not the same person.” He argued. A person thinking of themselves in terms of convenience always struck him as wrong. “You’re totally separate people.”_

_“Perhaps, then, you’ll have to know our quirks to differentiate us.” Laxi said, tried for a smile, then gave up because it did not come naturally to her. But then Mascula smiled instead, and his somewhat deeper voice resounded from the speakers inside their body. “ >Sorry, my sister’s banking on such a tall order.”_

_Ranzal shook his head. “No, it ain’t no trouble.” He gave them his winning grin. “Y’all have given Luca a bit of a kick to the rear. He needed that push.” They turned at a sound behind them. Inside the castle’s courtyard, Luca was playing with some of the children of the Halidom. All different races. All different colors. And he was having so much fun that Ranzal felt something warm in his chest. Something very sweet. “Anyone that can inspire him like that has my respect.”_

_“Thank you/ >Thank you.” They both said at once. _

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

Ranzal had gone to sleep that night feeling good for them all.

That’s why he understands, he gets why Luca’s so frazzled. Why he’s so desperate to find these god-forsaken apples, even if it kills him. “Man, this sucks!” The Sylvan whips his head around, his pastel-green hair moving like water behind him. As shiny as it has ever been. “M-Maybe we missed a few trees down a couple miles that way? Oh…”

“Hey,” Ranzal puts a hand on his shoulder. He applies just the right bit of pressure, knows it from his years of being alive and being close to death. Luca calms down. “We’ll find those damned apples, even if we have to cut down this entire forest.”

Luca blinks. Looks unsure. “Migardsormr would eat us alive.” Because of course he would. The forest is his home, a sacred place, on par with a church. Luca isn’t big on organized religion, but Elisanne’s presence (alongside all the other members of the clergy) provides a constant reminder of the ways that one can get excommunicated.

“I’m kidding, man!” He clasps him on the back, makes him exhale, relax. “We probably ain’t thinkin’ about this the right way. So sit yer ass down and breathe.” Ranzal sits himself down, Luca follows, and he sits up straight to let the younger man lean on him and sigh. He’s been running himself ragged. Sure, Ranzal got stung by a bunch of bees, but that had been a consequence of his own stupidity. Luca’s nearing exhaustion.

“…We can’t kick trees anymore.” He says, again. Reminding Ranzal about that unfortunate mishap.

“Aye aye, sir.” He rolls his eyes. “Won’t endanger yer life like that again.” He only jokes because he knows that Luca is, in fact, not allergic to bee stings. A benefit of his Sylvan heritage.

“I just want Euden to know how much I appreciate him…” Ranzal hands Luca an energy potion, and like a good friend, he only drinks half. Ranzal slowly puts the same bottle up to his lips as he listens to Luca talk, feels his words vibrate on his back where he’s leaning on, tries not to fixate on how Luca’s lips were on this bottle a second before. “He’s done so much.”

Luca is kind, gentle, eager for battle and even more eager for peace. His younger sister is a hot-blooded savant of the bow. She will, in time, outshine them all with her skill. Ranzal has an eye for that kind of stuff. So he can only assume, approximate at the way that Luca feels indebted to Euden for his charity. For the continued protection of their village, for the opportunities he and Sarisse both enjoy, for the chance to see his sister mature in ways that present themselves once in ten whole lifetimes.

“He certainly has,” Is all Ranzal says. Because there’s nothing else to say, because they both get it. Because under Euden’s shadow, they’ve become much better men than they would’ve dreamed being capable of before.

Luca continues to lay back against Ranzal. Ranzal cannot see his face, only hear his voice. He notices that he’s focusing on every word. He puts the bottle back to his lips, even though it’s basically empty.

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

_“You two work so well together.” Elisanne commented to Ranzal once. They were on night patrol, and the Halidom’s quiet halls echoed softly with their voices as they talked about their team-mates. “I’ve scarcely seen two people synergize so well in battle.”_

_“ Well, you know how it goes. I get into the fiend’s face, he supports me from a distance. It’s tested battle theory.” He shrugged, showing off a little of his military knowledge (not knowing yet that it would serve him well one day). “And besides, Luca’s a real good shot. Don’t got anything to worry about if he’s behind me.”_

_Elisanne smiled at him. Like she was thinking of something behind her pretty eyes. Ranzal tilted his head. “What is it?”_

_“Oh, nothing much.” She said, as mysterious as any woman can be. “Just thinking.”_

_He nodded. They were talking about possible assignments for future endeavors. Ranzal was a flexible man, able to work well with almost anyone. Hell, he’d perform for Euden no matter what he asked of him, because he’s never loved a Lord that much before. “But yeah. If I had to specifically pick someone to be my back-up, I’d be more than happy with Luca.”_

_“Would you be jealous if someone else got him?”_

_He turned to her. She didn’t flinch or turn away. An honest question._

_Ranzal was the one to look to the side, embarrassed. “…Not jealous, per se.”_

_She giggled. “And if our Prince paired you two up continuously?”_

_When he smiled without saying anything, she giggled again. “Oh, you big teddy-bear, you.” It’s hard not to be honest with such a good friend. Because she understands too. He didn’t miss the way her eyes longingly gazed at their Prince’s door, before putting aside her feelings to keep him safe as he dreamed._

“I’m not just getting these apples for Euden.” Luca comments. “I’m getting some for Laxi and Mascula too.”

They certainly deserve some as well. “Mind if I sign my name on the card?”

He shrugs, content. “Sure thing.” They’re looking up at the sky. “It’s almost nightfall.” He sounds a little sad, worried. “We’re not gonna get back in time, are we?”

“That’s why I hate Valentine’s Day.” Ranzal grumbles. Luca tilts his head back, and the mercenary feels his ears stroking the back of his neck. He silently lets himself enjoy the sensation for a single second. “See, it’s bullshit, right? You get a day where the whole point is to be nice and remind people you love that you love ‘em. But don’t that mean it’s ok to be distant every other day, too?” It’s a problem he’s had for a while with the whole celebration, why he likes to pretend he’s never even heard of it, even if it makes little genius girls call him old.

“I’m…not sure I follow.” Luca thinks to himself. “I mean, yeah, there’s a bunch of gift-buying if you’re rich enough. But I don’t see why that’s bad.”

“Well, look at you, for instance. Yer worried to tears over these damned apples, but what’s it so bad if ya get them tomorrow? Or a week from now? Why does it matter that ya get them today?”

Luca thinks. “Well, because we all agree it’s special.”

“Bull _shit_ , man!” It’s like back when he chewed happy-herb with his mercenary buddies. Luca tends to bring out this contemplative side of him. it's just two idiots shooting the breeze in the middle of a forest, lit by the scattered rays of the trees. If they weren't careful, they'd probably end up talking about how to effectively subvert 'the man'. “I ain’t gonna wait to tell my dad I love him all year. I do it when I feel like it!” Luca is the only person who will ever hear Ranzal admit to loving his father. He knows that Luca understands that. They’ve built up a sort of camaraderie over the time they’ve worked together.

“True. I see your point.” Luca nods. “…But your dad may feel weird if you tell him you love him today, of all days.”

Ranzal wasn’t thinking about things that way at all. He twists around, smacks Luca on the head like they tend to do between them. “Idiot. Get yer mind outta the gutter.”

Luca snickers. All is well.

The sun is gone now, the moon is teasing her entrance onto her celestial stage. “…Well, I want to give them the apples today regardless. But you’re right. Waiting for one day to tell them how much they mean to me ain’t fair.”

“Damn truth right there.”

Luca stretches. Ranzal smiles to himself. “It’s funny. This night is gonna have a similar feeling to how I felt when I talked with Mascula.” He sounds like he’s chewing on a piece of straw. “No clouds in the sky, and the moon’s just like it was back then.”

“Hmmm…” He wants Luca to tell him more.

“It was a big moon. All shiny and shit…”

“Maybe these apples will stop being so damn shy once they have a moon to drink from.”

“Yeah!” He laughs. “Maybe the sun’s too much of a pervert!” They guffaw, because they’re old enough to make those kinds of jokes, and because the image of shy apples shunning a lecherous sun is too damned funny.

A moment passes.

“….Wait.”

Luca rolls away, crazy like before. “Ranzal, oh my God!!” He’s got a bit of grass in his hair. But Ranzal’s eyes are wide and looking at Luca too. They’re sharing the same expression. “Are we freaking stupid, or what?!”

Ranzal gets to his feet, smacks his head. “We’re a couple of morons.” And they run.

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

_Sarisse had been pouting at him for a while now._

_Many of Euden’s army were called to help with a fiend infestation in a nearby town. Ranzal had volunteered to keep watch over the Halidom alongside a few other tested warriors. This not only included keeping the grounds secure, but also protecting the few people who were not quite up to par for the battlefield yet._

_It was not his fault that Euden was worried for her, nor his fault they had been waiting for a very long time. “Yer a little girl, still. Stop whining and go practice if yer itchin’ to kill so badly.” He regretted the choice of words, just a little, because this wasn’t some random child. This was Luca’s sister, and she was special. He’d sooner die for her than make her feel bad about anything. But she was tough, tougher than her brother gave her credit for, and was not bothered. He still tried for a gentler approach. “You can’t rush these things. It rarely ends well. Believe me, I know.” He did know, very well._

_“I can_ too _fight! I know I can! Euden just doesn’t trust me.” She crosses her arms, in deep thoughts._

_Ranzal simply gave her a look. He was faster than he looked, and knew how to restrain people. Painlessly too. “Don’t be thinkin’ yer gonna sneak out and prove yer worth.” He knows all the ways she could try—try—to escape the castle. He won’t give Euden or Luca that headache._

_She pretends to not have been caught red-handed. “I’m not that dumb.”_

_“No. You’re smart. But yer impulsive too.” He loved Sarisse with all his heart, but it was a wonder how old she regularly made him feel. “That’s a dangerous combo, lil’ girl.”_

_She paced around, the stone of the castle’s war tower clicking with her feet as she went and went and went her merry way. Waiting, making sure that Ranzal was aware of every second. Finally, she stood next to him at the large window, grasping the stone railing with her hands and squeezing hard. One day she would surely gain the power to break it, but not that day, not at that second. “…What if my brother doesn’t come back?”_

_He softly scrambled the hair atop her head, gentle at the space between her ears. “He’ll come back.”_

_“But you’re not with him!” She cried. As though that would make him sprout wings and fly to his side, his axe gleaming with the sun._

_He smiled at her because he understood how she felt. “I ain’t with him now, but he knows I’m waiting for him.” Maybe this was what it meant to be a cool older brother, confident and wise and ready to share the wisdom of his life with someone younger. Maybe he looked like a cool older brother as he gazed outside and mapped, in his head, the route Luca would take once he got home victorious with the rest, his bow gleaming with his pride. “Luca’s no slouch. I believe in him.”_

_Sarisse leaned on Ranzal, held his wide arm, let herself become vulnerable just a little. “…You two are close, ain’t ya?”_

_Ranzal let air exit from his nose, drinking in Sarisse’s excited squeal as her brother’s green ears peaked through the forest, looking just as Ranzal had predicted. He called out to her as she ran outside the room. “You can be too! You just gotta work at it!” He watched from the tower as a white bolt ran through the castle grounds and tackled Luca to the ground._

_When he reached them, Luca was holding her on his back. He gave Ranzal a nod. It was at times like this when he looked his strongest. “Thanks, man.”_

_A fleck of color kissed his cheeks. “Ain’t no trouble.”_

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

Soon enough, they get to a section of trees that are pulsing with golden light.

“AH-HA!!” They can’t help themselves, because they’re a couple of buffoons and they act like they’re drunk even when they’re not. It’s been one hell of a day, killing fiends and fleeing from bees, in search of apples that suck up moonlight to glow.

“Of course they’re not gonna glow during the day! DUH!!” Luca crosses his eyes. “I think my sister’s right. I need my head checked.”

“You and me both.” In private, they’ll admit it; they’re idiots and they don’t think before they leap into action. In front of all the girls of the Halidom, who consistently remind them of their ineptitude out of a mixture of scorn and worry, they’ll scoff and turn their heads away. Ranzal smacks the tree, like an idiot, but no bees come out. Only shining apples, falling down to his waiting, gaping wolf-skin sack. The light barely peeks through the material. “If we plant these at the Halidom, we could make a good penny. Whaddaya think, Lu—”

But he can’t finish what he’s saying, because Luca’s so excited that he hugs him, pushes him into the tree. More apples fall, onto their heads this time, and they both groan at the light pain. “Sorry!” Luca says. His face is close, his cheek tattoos framing his face so well, lit by the glow of the fruit. “I just got so darned happy, I couldn’t help myself!” He takes a bite out of one of the apples, a small burst of light painting his face for an instant. A bit of shining juice dribbles down his chin. His handsome visage is the image of bliss at that moment, and Ranzal cannot help but stare for a second.

“Is it that good?” He asks, not really minding their compromised position, nor the sensation of Luca’s leg on his groin, nor the way that he can smell apple on Luca now. It’s a sweet smell, it suits him. He ignores how his face heats up as it tickles his nose. “Lemme try one.” Ranzal leans back against the tree, Luca leans against Ranzal, and the two men resign themselves to lazily eating golden apples. Ranzal chooses to be the responsible one this time, reminds Luca to save a good portion for their King, for Mascula and Laxi.

“I wanna keep on tasting them!” He whines. Making himself look adorable.

“You’ll get sick, and then Cleo’ll chew us out.” Either Cleo or Hildegarde. He doesn’t know which is worse. Ranzal notices, once again, how Luca is on top of him, how they’re eating apples without a care, how his arm has moved on its own to hold Luca’s smaller waist and keep him from falling off. “Maybe we should get back to the castle. They must be waiting—”

When Luca kisses him, it’s not like Ranzal hasn’t ever fantasized about it. Hell, the way Luca was laying on top of him, it’s easily a natural progression.

It still catches him off guard. Severely.

The Sylvan man smiles at him, the moonlight turning his hair as silver as a myth. “Tastes good.” He says, blushing.

Ranzal’s cheeks are on fire. “W-W-What the hell are you—” His arm twitches, still around Luca. He doesn’t know what to do. “I-I-I thought ya were gonna—” He’s only ever stammered like this a few times in his life. He hates it. He feels like a schoolgirl on her first date. “but what about Laxi? Mascula? Masculaxi?” God, having two people share a body was inconvenient when it came to love.

Luca tilts his head. “What about them?”

Oh, for the love of God. “I thought you liked those two!”

Luca blinks. Then shakes his head. “Ranzal, they’re my _friends_. We’ve talked about that kind of stuff. Mascula wants to learn all he can about love and friendship, but he doesn’t want romance like that with me. He doesn’t want what we have to change.”

Ranzal’s calming down, somewhat. It makes some sense, between the taste of apples and the heat pooling at his lower end. He breathes, tries to calm himself down. “And Laxi?”

Luca snickers. “She doesn’t care about that. Don’t know how they’re gonna manage romance later, but she doesn’t see the point to it.” Ranzal had only ever met one other person who was like that. A frighteningly efficient commander. She could fit that role, he could see it.

But that wasn’t the problem here! Ranzal put his hands up, not knowing how to process what was happening. Luca frowned at the sensation of Ranzal’s arm leaving his hip. “A-And you want _me_?”

Luca softly leans forward, pushing on Ranzal, making the man’s cheeks turn as pink as flowers. “I mean. Why not?”

They work well together.

They laugh at the same jokes.

They both care about the same things.

They’re devoted to their King, and to their friends.

Is that enough to be devoted to each other?

“You came with me all this way for some apples.” He says, softly. Softly enough that it almost makes Ranzal doubt his hearing. “And you’ve helped me with everything else, too. Euden’s given me a castle to live in, but,” he’s blushing too. Two men acting like schoolgirls. “you’ve made it my home.”

He looks gorgeous in the interplay of the light of the fruit and light of the moon.

Older than when Ranzal first met him. Wiser. Kinder.

Ranzal slowly, slowly, lets himself put his arm around Luca again. Feels Mascula’s sword on his wrist, his family’s bow on his forearm. Luca kisses him again, and it’s longer than before. Ranzal’s nearly dizzy with the taste of apples and Sylvan man. Luca knows what he wants. He’ll push and ask until he gets it. A pleasant chill skitters up Ranzal’s back, and he breathes out when their lips break apart. “Sarisse is gonna kill me.”

He snickers at the larger man. “I’ll have a talk with her.” He’s stroking his dark hair, twirling it around his calloused fingers. They’re strong from both the sword and the bow, and somehow, Luca manages to make Ranzal feel safe just like that. “But I don’t think she’d be opposed.”

“She loves you to death.” Ranzal breaths out a laugh. “That girl would kill anyone who would try to hurt you.”

Luca is a peace-loving man. He hates the strife of war, the difficulties of hate. It hurt him a lot to see his sister quickly gain Euden’s approval for battle, hurt him even more so to see everyone else casually accept that she was fit to shoot a fiend between the eyes. But perhaps Ranzal had not given him enough credit, for he nods. “She’s talented. It’s her future.” Big words, coming from him. “But she wouldn’t hurt you.”

Ranzal can’t imagine a future where Sarisse won’t raise a stink about this. “How do you figure?”

“Cuz you’d never hurt me.”

Ranzal opens his mouth to try and argue, and fails.

He busies his lips by kissing Luca instead. Tugging at his hair, letting his age and experience show. Luca grunts in appreciation. There are no kids around, no pesky priestesses and paladyns to tell them to be pure and chaste before marriage.

The only reason Ranzal doesn’t take Luca right then and there is because of the bloodthirsty presence of a fiend in the shadows.

But they dispatch it so quickly, it could almost be called a graceful execution.

“Thanks.” He breathes out as he takes his axe out of the disappearing fiend.

Luca nods, grabbing fruit from the trees. He’s making the apples look dull, standing so close to them. “Ain’t no trouble.”

Ɛ> ~*~0~*~<3

They return when the moon is at its peak and the apples shine like mirrors. Euden is there, happy and glowing with his Valentines presents. Cleo and Hildegarde check their wounds, fussing as they're prone to do. And Ranzal is quick to catch Elisanne and Masculaxi looking at them, smiling their way.

He supposes it’d be hard not to. After all, they’re holding hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentines Day, nerds.


End file.
